ponderings on the world we live in…….Nothing is known to be absolute…some thoughts may touch you others may not…take what is useful and ponder the rest …..Never Fear The Dream
When presented with facts, we accept them, like them or not. People are facts, and so are you—accept them and yourself. Everyone has a bright and a dark side. Controlling your dark while enjoying their light takes practice. Showing your light while exposing their darkness comes naturally, but it should be avoided. 25.10.5
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
Every day, we hear people declare, ‘This is just second nature.’ For something to become second nature, there had to be practice and/or social influence to change what their first nature was. Does anyone remember what their first nature was, and can we peel back the veneer of our second to return to the first, if we wanted to?
We rarely talk about our First Nature. The nature we were blessed with in the beginning, before we were conditioned and formed life-altering habits. They are the innate, biological, pre-social capacities of curiosity, fear, empathy, attachment, and so on. First nature doesn’t hate; it differentiates. It notices patterns of familiarity, comfort, threat, and protection. It produces the capacity for bias, but it doesn’t develop an ideology of it.
Second Nature is learned, habituated, and socially enforced structures of behaviors and beliefs. When a reaction or attitude becomes second nature, it means it has been so deeply culturally engineered that it feels automatic—a reflex done without thinking. Second nature is encoding through stories, rituals, hierarchies, and reward systems. Hate and bigotry are not natural; they are second nature; they are a cultural metastasis of a cycle.
Fear triggers avoidance.
Avoidance promotes ignorance.
Ignorance fortifies fear.
Fear then justifies hate.
Run the loop long enough and hate feels ‘natural’—it is second nature and doesn’t feel like a negative response or reaction, it just merely is—because you’ve been socially corrupted and molded.
A thoughtful person in reflection must ask: Can it be reversed? The answer is a resounding yes. It can if we recognize the cycle. Instead of fear-triggering avoidance, what if it triggered natural curiosity? This shift in perspective opens up a world of possibilities for growth and change.
Fear triggers curiosity.
Curiosity promotes understanding.
Understanding fortifies commonality.
Commonality then justifies harmony.
This isn’t sentimental. It’s disciplined work: notice the trigger, interrupt the habit, and retrain the response by consciously choosing a different reaction. The task isn’t to erase second nature but to realign it—so what feels automatic again serves what is authentic.
We are defined by what we love and what we detest, what we accept, what we tolerate, and what we reject. Each of us can rediscover our first nature characteristics. Because first nature doesn’t have a set of instructions, rediscovery isn’t about reprogramming yourself but about acknowledging that you are a product of your socio-economic environment. Take time to reflect and, honestly, aggressively self-assess. Self-deception is self-deprivation—denying yourself the truth denies you growth. But when you embrace self-reflection, you take control of your growth journey. Ask yourself if the second nature virtue you exhibit is really a tortured, misconfigured, misaligned first nature—like fear yielding to hate. Give yourself the latitude and patience to look deep, rediscover alternatives, and be open to the power of curiosity and understanding. #NeverFearTheDream
Always feel free to re-post—anywhere, anytime, to anyone—share freely.
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
“Saving” someone isn’t your responsibility or obligation. But if they ask, you owe them your best. Witness or be witnessed—lead by example. Don’t talk about it. Be it. Show it. Live it. And know—you can’t truly lead until you’ve truly lost. 25.10.4
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
This was first published 8/29/22; yes 2022. It seems unfortunately appropriate that I republish it recognizing the events in which we currently find ourselves and the world
Our grand experiment of Democracy is dramatically different than every social norm, every other system of leadership, governance, and social fabric with which we live. It’s little wonder our system is always under attack and slowly yielding to authoritarianism. We must stay committed to our representative republic and the triad balance of power. If not, we too will slip into a transactional authoritarian government.
Social norms in our family, religion, business, and most world governments, have a strong bias toward authoritarianism. This is what we grew up with. A family structure which requires the adult(s) to be responsible and accountable. Youth are rewarded for following instructions and guidelines. In world religions, there is the priest, pastor, imam, grandmaster, or lama. Each controlling the message. All imposing authority over their flock. Grooming them for the future of the leader, ‘church’, or cult. At its worst this level of uncontrolled authority leads to mass suicides and child abuse. In business, unless you are self-employed, we all have supervisors. Authorities giving us assignments, judging our performance, and controlling our wages. This is when we truly begin to feel the influence and practice of transactional leadership. When decisions are made, not necessarily on the merits of the problem but on how the results can affect individuals and organizations. Globally, very few countries have histories other than dictator, monarchy, warlord, or czar. Their culture and history are rooted in non-democratic leadership. The plague of transactional leadership is the most dangerous in governments. Casting long term policy aside for near term benefit of themselves, their cronies, and minions. To be clear, there is a difference between transactions for self interest and those for policy advancement.
Fledgling democracies of the former Soviet Union and the countries which blossomed during the Arab Spring have fallen back to authoritarian governments where transactions are key to survival. Russia and China have changed their constitutions allowing Putin and Xi to be leaders for life, returning to the time of Stalin and Mao. Are we on the same precipice? We’ve seen the original basis of triad balance of power eroded as the executive branch has usurped congressional powers. Methodically, creating a ‘strong’ executive branch and thereby a weak, neutered, dysfunctional legislature. Boisterous, self-absorbed, ‘leaders’ don’t really care about your cause, only your money and your vote. In exchange, they will act as your advocate and protector. Disparage, insult, and harass those whom you believe are a threat, especially minorities, in exchange for your support. They will play the victim, if they think they can tug at your heart so you will tug at your wallet. Candidates pandering for their endorsement want it only to gain your support. They fear the zealous wrath at the polls so, as chameleons, will enthusiastically espouse whatever the loudest want to hear. Everything is a transaction. More ‘perfect’ phone calls. No long-term policy and direction considered. It boils down to: Put me in power today, keep me in power tomorrow and I’ll do your bidding, to hell with what’s right.
How do we arrest the accelerating demise of our democracy? We should re-establish the balance of power. The triad must be equal and accountable to each other. Executive orders should have sunsets and if not codified by Congress should expire. Restore and strengthen Congressional subpoena power. Reign in Executive Privilege; it’s a shield for deceit. Institute term limits on Supreme Court Justices and require the Senate to act immediately on nominations. Institute Congressional term limits and dismantle the seniority power structure. The Electoral College process should be updated, ensuring the count based on the people’s vote not the State’s politicized legislature.
Our democracy has matured over time, and we must be wary of the pendulum swing toward authoritarian transactional leadership. Once there, the fight to climb back up the moral pedestal will be very hard. We don’t need protectors. We need calm, stable, policy driven leadership. We need to declare allegiance to the Constitution not any party or person. #NeverFeartheDream
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NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth No Kings
As a child, I wore pinhole glasses with side shields. I had Coats’ Disease and was one of the youngest patients to undergo pre-laser photo-coagulation, where swollen blood vessels on my retina were burned into place. As their youngest and most active patient, the specialists feared that even slight eye movement might breach the scars and leave me blind. Their solution was to narrow and control my vision to protect it. To see more, I had to move my head, mentally stitching fragments into a larger, coherent picture.
Today, too many choose to live this way—peering at the world not only through pinhole glasses but through pinhole windows in houses of self-imposed isolation.
We are fortunate to have the ability to see both panorama and detail. Yet many deliberately confine themselves to the narrowest slits of vision. They call it principle, but it is often blindness. When you see only fragments, you are not informed—you are managed. Critical thinking can change this. It helps us see beyond fragments, connect the dots, and make informed decisions.
Life is messy, confusing, thrilling and interconnected. To reduce it to one grievance, one tribe, or one slogan is not clarity; it is surrender. Families and communities depend on us to see beyond personal outrage. Narrow vision produces narrow outcomes—divisive politics, social inequality, and environmental degradation. Such outcomes almost always serve those in power, not those staring through the pinhole.
Isolation breeds fragility. Fragile citizens are the easiest to rule. People who see only what they want soon treat alternative views as offensive rather than essential. That is a weakness, not a strength. And it plays into the hands of those who designed the house, who placed the windows exactly where they want you to look. They don’t want you to see the horizon. Their concern is not you—it never was.
As a child, I had no choice; my parents and doctors demanded the glasses. As an adult, I do. And so do you. To widen your view does not mean agreeing with every perspective, but it does mean choosing to understand rather than accept without question.
My treatments gave me two things: the gift of sight in one eye, and an appreciation for looking beyond monocular perspectives. Life is not a snippet or a shard. It is a mosaic. Each tile taken in isolation is meaningless, maybe even deceptive. But the whole is magical. The choice is stark: stitch together the fragments, or let others decide what you see. Choose depth and insight. Never surrender your vision. Step out of the pinhole window house, discard the pinhole glasses, and turn your head on a swivel to absorb the beauty of a limitless world. #NeverFearTheDream
Always feel free to re-post—anywhere, anytime, to anyone—share freely.
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
Encourage ethical living through four simple principles
Religions and philosophies have long sought to distill the principles of life into something memorable and enduring. The story goes that Moses ascended the mountain to retrieve the Ten Commandments for his people. Ten was supposed to be simple. Yet if today’s headlines are any measure, ten is too many for too many. So let’s cut to the core—four principles that are not bound by any specific belief system, but are universal and can be practiced by anyone:
Act with reverence to all. Cultivate generosity. Be considerate in relationships. Tell the truth with care.
Act with reverence to all. The key phrase is to all. Reverence means respect, grace, and honor—offered not just to friends or allies but to those who oppose, insult, or dismiss you. You don’t have to like or agree with someone to treat them with dignity. Doing so shows moral maturity, honors both of you, and sets an example—even if it isn’t returned.
Cultivate generosity. Generosity isn’t about giving away everything. It is a practice of timely kindness—offering what is needed, when it is needed, to whomever needs it. Like any skill, generosity grows through practice until it becomes second nature.
Be considerate in relationships. Every intimate relationship carries hope and vulnerability. To honor that is to see beyond the carnal into the emotional and intellectual—embracing another’s fears and dreams without violating them. That takes openness and courage. And once you learn it in intimacy, extend it outward—adjusting the degree, but carrying consideration into every human interaction.
Tell the truth with care. Truth matters—but it can wound. Some truths people bury, rewrite, or try to cancel because they hurt. Still, the truth must surface. The key is how we share it: directly, yet not cruelly, honestly, yet not demeaning. Speak truth the way you would want to hear it yourself. And remember, truth is rarely black and white; perspective adds the shades of gray that make it whole.
Headlines are filled with destruction, hatred, and division. We can’t stop it all. But each of us can live by these four guardrails. They are not lofty commandments carved in stone, just four simple principles to practice every day. Because ten may be too many, but we can manage four:
Reverence. Generosity. Consideration. Truth.
Always feel free to re-post—anywhere, anytime, to anyone—share freely.
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
Commitment is the spark of a beginning; discipline is the strength to see it through. Knowledge can be a barrier to understanding. Never be afraid to ask—anything. 25.10.2.1
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
King Wannabe stood before the crowd of people, his back hunched, too feeble to be erect, his greying, bushy eyebrows raised, his face twisted in contempt. The people would not chant his name nor bow to his image. “Rabbits,” he scoffed. “Nothing but rabbits. They eat, they breed, they exist for my pleasure. Especially the young ones—for my pleasure. Everyone must love Wannabe, everyone, especially these rabbits.” His entourage knelt in obedience, fearful of his rage.
One brave advisor dared to whisper, “But sir, no one is loved by everyone, and they are more than rabbits. They are people, with minds, with hopes and dreams.” In a buffoonish manner, Wannabe waved the thought aside, clutching a handful of pamphlets. “Look at these. Lies! All lies! Their words are filth. Take their paper and their pens. Silence them, cancel their culture.” He signed an Order, and the dutiful minions obeyed, seizing what they could.
Yet the words did not stop. Thought traveled without ink. Discontent spread without parchment. And so Wannabe tightened his grip. In a tyrannical rage, he yelled, “We will control the news. We will make them pay to speak. We will force them to listen. We will tell them what books to read. We will be their favorite, the one they love; they will love Wannabe.” Again, with trepidation, the advisor leaned close: “But sir, even without paper, they have found their voices. They still have minds. And even rabbits, when cornered, will bite. Not today, perhaps—but one day the rabbits will bite. Remember this if you remember nothing at all. And heed the hunter’s satire.” The Wannabe dismissed him with a bitter laugh and a sneer. “Nonsense. They are only rabbits. They are for my pleasure; their only care is to eat and breed.” He arrogantly sneered. “And as to the satirical, I hate comics: ‘ain’t no fun when the rabbit’s got the gun’ is just silly. It’s for the weak and timid; not for Wannabe because Wannabe controls all and fears nothing.” He laughed, but his laugh was uneasy, and the silence from his minions was unmistakable and deafening.
Seasons passed. The whisper and wisdom of the sage advisor lingered. The people—mocked as useless, underestimated lagomorphs—grew weary of abuse and felt more cornered yet bolder. The self-serving advisors, sensing doom, scurried away with whatever spoils they could steal. At last, Wannabe stood alone, his armies and decrees powerless against a multitude no longer afraid, but resolute and united.
And from the crowd, like sparks catching fire, came the clamorous chants:
“Today the rabbits bite.” “Ain’t no fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.”
The chants rolled through the streets, half warning, half laughter, but all serious. It was no threat of violence, but a proverb of irony. These people, these ‘rabbits’, had never needed literal guns because they had found something much more lethal—strength in their numbers, in their unified ideas, in their memory, dreams, and words, and now in their collective refusal to bow. The chant was their laughter, their truth, their declaration that the world had turned and change was in the offing. And the wise sage smiled a subtle, small, sly smile, always knowing and anticipating the power of their unity.
Civil society thrives only when none are treated as beasts, but as human beings with voices, hopes, and dreams. Wise leaders understand that thought is stronger than chains and the pen is stronger than the sword. The silencing of truth and thought control is always temporary; revolt begins the moment words are stifled, and action follows when endurance breaks.
If you have a gun—put it down, and put it away, we rabbits don’t need them.
Instead, pick up your pen and write your thoughts and dreams. Raise your voice and speak your mind. Open your ears and listen to others. Kings, Emperors, and wannabes are mortal. But thoughts endure. Words endure. And yours are essential. #NeverFearTheDream #Ain’tNoFun #RabbitsBite
Always feel free to re-post—anywhere, anytime, to anyone—share freely.
NeverFearTheDream simplebender.comStand For Truth
If you’re looking for daily thoughts and insights you will want to start the morning with:
Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
If you know someone who is facing any facet of Alzheimer’s they might gain some insight from:
Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
Please consider following simplebender, you’re reading makes my writing more fun..…
Comments and thoughts are always welcome and feel free to re-post …..
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